Cougar Pride- It’s a Real Thing (By Syl Sobel)

Shortly before kickoff of Thursday night’s Maryland 4A state championship football game at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in Annapolis, Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman noticed that he’d received a text message from former Quince Orchard High School football star Johnny Hodges. “He wants to know where he can get a livestream of the game,” said Ashman to his companions at the 50-yard-line as they prepared to watch QO defend its state title against C.H. Flowers High School of Prince Georges County. 

That Hodges, a 2019 QO graduate and cocaptain of the 2018 championship team, would still want to watch a team of players who weren’t even at QO when he played, isn’t all that remarkable when you think about it. Hodges’ loyalty to his former coaches and the QO football program runs deep. Neither is the fact that of all the people he might contact to find out where to find a livestream, he’d choose the Mayor of Gaithersburg. Ashman’s love of QO football as a parent of two QO alums, including a former football player, is well known throughout the community.

But that Hodges, a starting linebacker and leading tackler for the third-ranked and then-undefeated TCU Horned Frogs would do this less than 48 hours before he would play in the Big 12 championship game with a potential spot in the bowl championship series on the line – well, that says a lot about the drawing power of QO football. So what’s it all about? No doubt a lot has to do with the program’s success that started under former coach Dave Mencarini and has continued since John Kelley became head coach in 2013. With last week’s 32-7 victory in the state final, QO has now won back-to-back state titles, three of the last four, and five in all. The win was their 31st in a row, raised their record to 55-2 over the past five years, and earned Kelley his 100^th victory as head coach.

But just as important, for at least the past 15 years since their stunning come-from-behind win in the 2007 state championship, the football program has served as a rallying point for the sprawling and diverse QO community. It brings students, faculty, staff, parents, and community members together to enjoy the high level of play and achievement. And the community’s support for the program is not only a product of its success. It’s one of the reasons for it. Thus, as in its past appearances at state title games, the QO side filled a larger share of the stadium than their opponent and was louder throughout the night. 

And, as for previous state finals, QO fans who did not attend the game in person filled Quincy’s, the Gaithersburg eating and drinking establishment owned by the Magills, a QO football alumni family, to watch the livestream on its ample supply of television sets. “The place was packed,” said Cody Magill, a key member of the Cougars ’07 championship team. “We had a guy come in who wanted to watch the NFL game. We had to send him to a little TV in the corner by himself. Everyone else was watching the QO game.” And that’s why fans who didn’t go to Quincy’s or the stadium kept bugging me, Ashman, and others to update the game on social media. They weren’t there, but they wanted to be part of it. 

And why, after a lull at Quincy’s between the end of the livestream and the return of fans and coaches from the stadium, the neighborhood establishment filled for a second time that night with celebration, congratulations, and pride.“This is so great,” said Ashman as he surveyed the scene early Friday morning at Quincy’s along with Gaithersburg City Council Member Lisa Henderson, beaming with pride. “It says so much about Gaithersburg as a community.”  

Look, I’m not saying that QO is the only community that has this kind of support for its high school football program – and often for some of the school’s other athletic and artistic activities as well. Or that we’re the only high school community that gathers in large number to celebrate their young people’s achievements, or that parents remain attached to even years after their kids have left the school, or that the kids continue to care about after they graduate, and perhaps even return to as teachers and parents and pay their memories forward to a next generation of Cougars.

All I’m saying is that I’m grateful to be a part of a community that does – and I’m especially grateful that it’s this one. Did I hear someone say “Threepeat?”

Syl Sobel is a Gaithersburg resident, an author, attorney, former newspaper reporter, and retired federal government executive. He covered QO sports for The Town Courier.  

#QOpride pic.twitter.com/nZ7cNY26pz

— Quince Orchard Fball (@QO_FOOTBALL) December 2, 2022